Art, Music and Words around The Coffee Table

Tiwoo was not at all happy with this decision, in fact she was very angry. Really, she thought, now that it was becoming fun, that little coward wanted to go back home! She started shouting at Bub, as loud as she ever could. But well, she certainly had not as frighteningly powerful a voice as Barbra and what she thought would sound scary to Bub sounded only like one more of her silly and boring tiwoos.

No, Bub was not impressed at all by her screams. But yes, he was scared, so scared, first by the skulls in the desert, and now by these horrible creatures, that he had only one thought: to run away as fast as possible and to hide in a safe place. Not that the castle was really a safe place, but well, he hadn’t really a choice, our poor boy, had he?
Tiwoo hesitated. She looked back with nostalgia to the wood. You must understand, this was the place where she was born, and she still felt her roots to be there… of course not roots like these big creatures called trees, but roots nevertheless! But then she thought of Barbra… yes, she was a tremendous little witch, but she had got used to her, and Tiwoo knew that deep in her heart, Barbra loved her.

What should I do now, she asked herself? The wood, yes it was her home, but to be fair, although there was a lot of creatures in the wood, she had always felt quite alone and cold among them. She thought a while longer, but in the end, she couldn’t really face the thought of being alone again, and chose Barbra and her castle!

She let a last deep sigh out, thinking “Why always me?”, and after a last sad glance back to the wood and waving goodbye with one of her big wings, she followed Bub. But she felt a deep weight on her owl’s soul. She comforted herself telling herself that in fact she could always revoke her decision and fly back to the wood if she needed to one day, she knew the way now. But deep inside she also knew that this was an irrevocable decision, that her real home now was in the castle, with the ugly, always angry and impatient little witch Barbra!

On the way back to the castle, Bub looked up to the sky, checking if the moon was back. But it was not there. not really, there was now just a very thin pale curved line where it used to be, and above all it no longer had any eyes. The sky was almost black and empty now, apart from tiny little yellow points which were nothing at all compared to the wonderful ball of light with the big round eyes. Bub felt very sad again, wondering if the moon was gone for ever, and somehow he couldn’t bear this thought. This is what happens when one loses friends, a normal thing, but Bub didn’t know anything about it and felt simply sad and alone.

… and he ran and ran until most of that oppressive, so unpleasant feeling had vanished. And when he couldn’t run anymore, he stopped and fell asleep on the ground.

But not long after that, he suddenly woke up, even more scared than before. He had had a horrible nightmare: Barbra had appeared to him as a gigantic, naked skeleton who tried to bury him alive into the sand! It’s no wonder that Bub awoke in such a mess, isn’t it?
Scared to death, he rummaged around in his pocket to check if the bottle was still there and the tiny creature still inside of it. Of course the bottle was still there, and Barbra was still a tiny little Witch in her purple gown and green hat! Our Bub had no idea that nightmares are not real, and often only the mirror of our most terrible fears. But well, real or not, the fact is that they can scare the pants off us!
As Bub took the bottle out of his pocket, he was stunned to see that Barbra was really still inside of it, still as tiny and fleshy and clothed as before, and apparently sleeping, He had no idea what it was all about, understood though that things around him seemed to be different when his eyes were closed or open. But he was too exhausted to think further and tried to sleep again.
But he couldn’t anymore… I suppose he was much too scared to meet the giant skeleton again! So he got up and walked all the way back to the crossing.

In the distance he could already see Tiwoo sitting on the pole. She had been so terrified by the bones and the skull in the desert that she had flown directly back to the crossing, without even casting a glance behind her and noticing that Bub had fallen asleep to the ground! But as she saw Bub now, she flew to meet him with hysterical screams of happiness
“Tuwit, Tawoo!”
Bub was quite surprised about such a friendly reception. It was the first time in his life that somebody seemed to enjoy his presence and a warm feeling for the owl invaded his heart.
Well, judging by her reaction to the skull in the desert, I suspect that Tiwoo too had had these kind of bad dreams which scare the pants off one -even though an owl doesn’t wear pants, the feeling is surely all the same- and was simply overjoyed not to be alone anymore!

Now there was only one direction left. This meant that theoretically Bub would find at the end what he was searching for all the time… supposing of course that there was something to find! And what if there was not? This question slowly and painfully entered his mind, and the feeling connected with it seemed to live very close to all the other feelings of hope and nostalgia he had experienced since he went on this way through Barbra’s Land..
He was struggling in his mind with these kind of thoughts as he noticed, that the air went darker and darker, Not like in all the 3 other directions, where at least some nice light had arisen from behind the horizon or some pleasant smell was hanging around,. Not even the pale moon was to be seen up there in the sky! To tell the truth it had become in the meantime total darkness around him! He started worrying, and feeling very uncomfortable, as he suddenly heard a scream in the distance:
WOO OOH WOOH WOOH TI WOOH!
A scream which quite sounded like the ones of the owl, but much more mysterious, and somehow they were sounding as if thousands of owls were screaming at the same time!
Bub thought that he couldn’t be right here. More than that: he had the feeling to go always further away from what he was searching for. But he knew too that he had no more choices, now, and well, sometimes in life appearances are misleading, aren’t they? Anyway, Bub decided to go further, somehow he could not accept, or didn’t want to accept, that he had gone all these ways for nothing, and even worse, that this something he was searching for didn’t exist and was only something like the apparition of the giant skeleton, not really real!

Tiwoo in the meanwhile had become very cheerful and was flying big circles above his head, often flying a big distance away, then flying back, screaming impatiently all the time as if she wanted to tell him he should hurry up!
But Bub was really not impressed, and in fact he went slower and slower as the screams from the East came closer and closer until he finally stopped. It was not even that he wanted to stop, he just couldn’t go on anymore, as if a mysterious, invisible force was retaining him.
The thing was that horrible figures were standing in front of him, much uglier than the Witch Barbra as she was angry and full of hate. Figures as big and scary as the skeleton of his dream, but these were really there! And they stared at him with so much more hate than even Barbra did as he locked her up into the poison bottle… surely you understand what I mean!

This is why he decided to run back to the castle as fast as possible and never to leave it again!

But although he knew he was in the wrong place, he couldn’t help continuing to look at the amazing scenery, the play of the waves crowned with millions of pearls falling at his feet and rolling back again into the sea. And also, far away beyond the horizon, Bub could see a red light in the sky, and again it reminded him of something which filled his heart with nostalgia. It was the second time now that he’d had this kind of weird sensation and he began asking himself what it could be and if it meant something. And he thought that perhaps he would find out, going along the other two paths..

Bub had a last glance at the fantastic scenery and then walked all the way back to the crossing. As he arrived there, he decided to go on without a rest, uncaring of Tiwoo, who was protesting with a great flapping of her wings and loud screams. The owl was not so tired this time, as they had had such a long rest by the sea, and she was hoping to find a way to free Barbra while Bub would sleep. Strangely enough, she started to miss her little Witch, was impatient to see her miserable face again and hear her awful screams of anger.
Strange, isn’t it, that when we are separated from the persons we love, we soon start to miss even what we most hate in them! Yes, love is such a mystery…

Anyway, she didn’t understand Bub’s sudden zeal, She even started again to think about the possibility of scratching out his eyes. But well, as a wise owl she knew that such an important decision had better be thought on twice, and she decided to wait a little bit longer. To be honest, she hadn’t yet seen everything in Barbra’s land, and well, her longing to see her was still not so deep that it demanded immediate action. Waiting a little bit longer would just make the reunion sweeter, wouldn’t it?
This is why she spread her big wings and flew behind Bub Southwards.

Bub ran and ran and ran… the ground was soft and became softer and softer, so that each step was harder and harder. No wind was blowing anymore and the air was hot and dry. The ground was made out of millions of fine grains, similar to the ones he has seen on the beach. But here it was not pleasant, the tickling under his feet really felt like fire and an oppressive smell was lingering all around.

If you are quite clever and well travelled, you might have understood that Bub was now standing in the middle of the desert. Of course he had no idea what a desert is, but he already knew that he didn’t like it.
“Could this really my way?” he asked himself
But then he suddenly saw a weird plant with thorns, which again reminded of something, something he believed he had seen somewhere a long time ago. And this something again woke in him a nostalgic feeling like the one he had had before.
This is when Bub suddenly understood one of the most important things in the life of all inhabitants of our big universe: without really being aware of it: he was in search of something!
In case you are wondering what I am speaking about: normal people, grown-ups above all, with a rather more sophisticated vocabulary and experience than our Bub, call it something like „the search for the sense of existence”, or „the meaning of life’, or “what the hell I am doing here on Earth?” You surely have heard many of them asking these questions with terribly sad faces, haven’t you? So you exactly know what I mean!

But Bub of course hadn’t a clue about all this philosophical mumbo-jumbo. He just understood that that something he was reminded of all the time was simply what he was searching for. And this is why he hoped, in spite of the heat and the awful smell, that he would find HIS something at the end of this way.
He started to run again, but the sand was so heavy under his feet, heavier and heavier, and he only moved forwards agonisingly slowly.

Even Tiwoo was out of breathe. She was now sitting on Bub’s head, and let him carry her through the desert, screaming and moaning and crying that this was not acceptable and that they should go back.

Only Barbra in her bottle had really nothing to moan about. In fact the liquid around her was quite cool, and finally, exhausted after some nights without sleep she had fallen in a kind of meditative state. Well, this is how she called it always, and how some people call it when they don’t want to admit that they have fallen asleep. A strange habit, isn’t it, when one considers how nice it is to sleep! But I am quite sure that she was sleeping, and perhaps even dreaming of glass balls and bubble boys.

Anyway in the meanwhile, weird things had begun to appear on the ground, things which looked quite scary somehow. Things which strangely reminded Bub of the picture on the poison bottle. And then, suddenly, it was there, exactly the same thing as on the bottle: A SKULL!
And without knowing what a skull really is, Bub found it so scary that he screamed.

And not only HE screamed, Tiwoo too, but of course much louder, as she knew all about skulls. She instantaneously took off from Bub’s head and flew away back to where they had come from, as if the devil was behind her. And without a thought, Bub turned around and followed her, running as fast as he could….

Bub ran the whole way back to the crossing and once there he slumped down to the ground. Everything had been so exciting and exhausting –well, no wonder, Bub was really not used to physical exercise and fresh air!- so he really needed some rest now. And in fact before he was aware of this he felt asleep.

Tiwoo, who had spent her time in the air fighting against the wind gusts and whirls, felt very tired too. She didn’t get much exercise and fresh air either in Barbra’s castle, since she didn’t take her anymore on her night flights. She fought awhile against the sleep as she saw the little boy sleeping, thinking that this was the occasion to free the Witch from her poison bottle. But even sleeping Bub kept his two hands deeply thrust inside his pockets, as if he could read Tiwoo’s mind!

The day after, well… I mean at some point later, as day and night didn’t exist anymore in Barbra’s land, only night, our three heroes woke up. To tell the truth, Barbra hadn’t slept at all, trying to find a way to escape while Bub was sleeping, trying especially all kinds of magic code and naughty words, resulting in nothing, absolutely nothing happening. But although she was a tiny little Witch now, she still had a big will and much strength of character, and she would never give up!

As he awoke, Bub chose to go towards West. The way was as straight and as long as the one leading Northwards. Bub noticed that here too, some light appeared at the horizon, but the wind was much more tender, more a light breeze than a storm. It even seemed to carry with it a pleasant smell which made Bub feel comfortable, kind of. The farther he walked, the stronger the smell became and finally Bub really felt wonderful, perhaps for the first time since he was born.
Bub didn’t know about the power of smells in our lives, but I am sure you know… just think of the smell in the kitchen when your mother is baking pancakes… it is as if nothing bad could ever happen to you again! And this is why, remembering the inner voice, a thought crossed Bub’s mind:
“This must be the right way for me! “

And this is why, Bub started to run, impatient and curious to see where the way was going. Soon he heard strange noises, quite loud, sounds like he never had heard before. It didn’t sound like the awful screaming from Barbra, nor like the “Tiwoo Tiwoo” from the bird, nor like the sound of the wind in her wings. It was a darker sound, and although it became louder and louder it had something calming and reassuring. It was a feeling like with the smell before.

Soon Bub arrived at a wide yellow surface which seemed to be made of something totally different from what he knew. The feeling under his naked feet was extremely pleasant, slightly tickling but wonderfully soft, quite warm but not too much, just the right temperature.
You surely have understood by now that the yellow surface was a beach and that the nice stuff under Bub’s feet was sand. And as always in our world, where there is a beach, there is a sea, or at least a lot of water. And in fact judging by the violent sounds the water was making now, directly in front of Bub, it could only be a sea , or perhaps even a wild ocean!

The water indeed was very wild, and the waves, metres high, greatly impressed our little boy, breaking down in front of him in thousands of little water tongues which seem to leap out of the big blue mouth just to lick Bub’s feet. The water was cold but Bub enjoyed the caress around his feet. It was both scary and fascinating at the same time, and in spite of his fear, Bub stood there a long long time, watching and enjoying the scenery and all these new pleasant feelings in his body and brain. He loved to see the millions of water pearls floating upon the foam, making the water looking like thousands of princesses dancing in a court ball. Not that he knew really much about princesses, but I do believe that all children in the world, even the ones born in a soap bubble, have an intuitive knowledge about princes and princesses: they have simply belonged to their world since the beginning of time!

But as much as he loved it, it became clear to him that the way ended here, by this wall of water. No way he could go across that infinite mass!

Henri had returned to the main hall.
“Henri, what did you mean by…” began Dryden. Henri cut him off.
“It seems, mes amies, that we have been afforded some assistance by our friends and allies in the United Kingdom. To be specific, I expect to be joined for dinner by ten of his majesty’s finest fighting forces. It seems that our fears about poor Malachi were well-founded. We are threatened, and soon.”
Henri grabbed a coffee from the pot and sat down at the end of the long table, lost in thought.
Dryden looked a little confused. “So, I should really prepare a little more food?” he asked, dubiously.
Henri smiled at him, a weary smile. “Of course, my friend. One cannot fight on an empty stomach, non?”

“I’ve found it, Lieutenant!” exclaimed Percy. A curious grinding sound filled the recess they were standing in. Percy had his hands in the air. It looked as though they ended at the elbow, but closer inspection revealed he had pushed a great stone upwards into the ceiling. Evidently counterbalanced, it was now operating some unknown ancient mechanism.
“Look!” said Vann. In the right hand corner of the recess, a whole section had slid back and sideways to reveal a narrow, smooth-stoned passage heading steeply downwards.
“Let’s move” said Ben. The men filed in, ducking their heads, into the darkness beyond. “How did you find it?” asked Ben of Percy.
“I noticed a faint inscription on it sir, just like that one.” He pointed to a stone protruding out of the otherwise smooth wall.
“Clever” said Ben “The reset. Let’s keep the Cathars’ secret, shall we?” he pushed the stone, and, protesting, it eventually slid flush with the wall, and the huge stone door slid sideways and out to block the entrance once again, plunging the passageway into total darkness.
“Flashlights” ordered Ben. ”Let’s move!”
The passageway wound its way down quite steeply, and rivulets of water sparkled on the walls in the play of their beams.
“We must be moving under the river” said Corporal Vann.
“Yeah? Who’s to say the River hasn’t flooded this passage further down?” said Withers, nervously. A tough soldier, he nevertheless fought a constant battle with claustrophobia. Ben answered him.
“Unless it has flooded in the last two years, I think it’s safe to say the intel from L de L is sound. They’re hardly likely to give us an emergency incursion route and then drown the cavalry, are they?” He kept it light-hearted, knowing Wither’s fears. He’d read the files on all his men. He liked to know who he was taking into combat.
“If you say so, Lieutenant Commander” replied Withers. With some effort, he pushed his fear back down, and moved on.
Eventually, they felt the passageway bottom out and begin to head upwards. The rock became drier, the air fresher. At some point, Ben noted, they seemed to have emerged above ground, and he sensed they were within the Monastery walls. Suddenly, the passageway abruptly ended. Dead ahead, at shoulder height was another rock with a faded inscription. Here goes nothing, thought Ben as he pushed hard against it, and the passageway filled with light. Another stone doorway had slid out and sideways, revealing a large hall.
“Bonsoir” announced Henri from his chair in greeting, as Dryden, Marie-Christine and the others stared open-mouthed at the eight black-clad soldiers emerging from the fireplace. “A glass of wine, peu t’etre?”

And here he was now, our little hero, for the first time in his life asking himself the question:
“What now?”

They waited all three at the crossing. Barbra, who at the beginning full with anger and impatience had wildly screamed and … around in her bottle, but had finally calmed down, suddenly noticing the bitter taste of the poison on her lips. She probably took now the opportunity to learn patience and reason or, what is even more probable, to develop a devilish escaping plan.

In the meanwhile Bub noticed that something weird was happening in his head, something similar to the feeling he had had as he had started to grow in his bubble. He noticed how this something started to move around, as if it was trying to free itself. It took some time and some wild manoeuvres in his brain, but then suddenly it came out, in form of words. These words were the answer to the very first question Bub had ever asked himself in his life, “What Now?” and they were spoken by an a voice inside of him. The voice was saying:

“All directions are equal. Just chose one and you will soon see if it is the right one for you. If not, just come back to the crossing and try another one!”
Every normal people on earth knows this voice, it is what we call our inner voice. Some among us hear it more often then others, saying weird stuff, dangerous even, and these people have to be locked in then. But normally our inner voice is quite useful, always trying to help us and give us advice when we don’t know better.

“When it doe not matter which direction I should chose, then I go here!”, he said to himself. And without having a clue what that meant, Bub went towards North. I guess he simply felt attracted by the blue colour at the horizon, remember, the same colour as his jacket! But of course Bub himself didn’t know anything about this kind of deep psychology and just walked to North.

Tiwoo, after this short rest, was really impatient to fly again. And like before she was firmly decided not to let Bub one second from the eyes, ready to free Barbra if any occasion presented itself. She spent her time in the air flying circles above his head, trying to see the little Witch in the bottle, or at least some movement in the pocket, but it was all still there. She could not help worrying a little bit, wondering if Barbra was still alive. Imagining her inside of an almost full poison bottle with her quick-tempered character was not very comforting But well, Bub had still both hands in his pockets and it was clear that there was not room for wild exercises inside there. No room to free her, but also no room for Barbra to move and to get killed , and this was rather reassuring.

On the way towards North, the air became colder and Bub —his hands deeper in his pockets. Barbra in her bottle thought that it was the end now, the bottle due to the pressure would soon explode in thousand pieces and she would die drowned into the poison.
What an irony would it be by the way, wouldn’t it? Drowned in her own poison! Well, these things happen in life to really nasty people, you know. But as I said earlier on Barbra was not really nasty and the bottle didn’t break. Bub might have lost the memory from before the landing, but he knew everything from after and had not forgotten, of course, about the bottle in his pocket!

A strong wind also came up and blew in Tiwoo’s hair. The owl was really fed up, she gradually didn’t enjoy the flying anymore. In fact she was a good weather bird and she hated all these brutal gusts all around her, which continuously menaced to bring her out of the balance. Bub also was suffering, thinking that he didn’t really like this way, and even less when it started to get stony and steep.

But then, as he was thinking to go back, the way suddenly stopped and in front of them stood gigantic white stony walls erected towards the sky.
These stony walls -what normal earth people call mountains, of course- reminded him of something, but he didn’t know what. He just had the feeling to have seen something like that before.

We of course know, don’t we?

Far away behind the mountains he could see a light stripe in the sky, so different from the sky from Barbra’s land where it was always so dark. In this moment for the first time he wondered why it was always so dark there, not knowing that Barbra had made a mistake and conjured the sun away! He felt that he loved that light stripe. it awoke in Bub a certain feeling which we will call nostalgia , or even better homesickness. But Bub of course still didn’t remember anything about his home, and just wondered again about all these weird things which were going on inside of him.
Anyway, even if he liked the light far away, he could not go through the mountains to reach it, so he remembered the word of his inner voice and knew that this was not his way. He decided to go back to the crossing.

Following Danu’s post yesterday showing us one of his paintings of Don Quijote and Don Sancho Panza, I thought I should show you today my version of the story… not a painting, but a photo, taken about 2 years ago at the windmills from El Quijote. Now I am sure that most of you know the story, or at least have heard about it, but how many among you have really seen these windmills? Not many I guess! So I am sure that many will be pleased to see that these windmills really exist and still are in a wonderful state… above all the one on the left!

Our three heroes were now outside of the castle: Tiwoo in the air flying ahead, Bub on the ground running behind the owl and Barbra in Bub’s pocket bouncing about in the bottle. Good that you can’t see her by the way, as due to the incessant juddering she got really seasick, and evermore greener and angrier in her face – which she always was anyway!
They went straight on for a long time, until Bub totally lost his bearings. Not that he really had them before, but this time he felt as if he had absolutely no idea where he was, something like that awful feeling you have when you are lost! He looked around, trying to find anything known or comforting to his eyes and his heart. At some point he looked up in the sky and saw the yellow ball he had met as he was still floating in his bubble. The ball was so pale now, and no more round at all and the eyes were hidden behind a grey veil. He felt a strange sadness as he saw her, but some comfort too.
I forgot to tell you before that as a result of the dramatic landing on the castle tower, Bub had lost his memory and could hardly remember what was before. You will say that this probably wasn’t much anyway, having spent his whole young life floating in an almost empty sky, but well, for all of us, people, the personal details are the most important thing in life. And Bub had forgotten all the details, had forgotten everything about the flight in the net on the broomstick, the floating bubble and of course how he had come to earth in the Land of the Rising Sun. Just as he saw the moon up there something seemed to awaken in his memory, something like a nostalgic sparkling light which seemed to shine from very far away…

Bub didn’t know what that all meant, had no idea why he felt that way, no idea of all this feelings stuff, which normally fills human beings’ lives. Feelings like happiness, sadness, nostalgia, love, hate or even fear, all this was new to him.
He just knew that often he had felt terribly bad, as for example when he was sitting in his bubble and Barbra was staring at him and even worse as she had started screaming. He remembered also how much better he felt as he was crouching on the wonder table, quite big, and hasn’t forgotten either the ugly look on Barbra’s face as she ran away or as he put the cork back on the poison bottle.

Oh dear! You will object now that I just told you that Bub had lost his memory about everything prior to the landing… you see, this is exactly what one calls a bug!
But in fact I just wanted to test if you are really listening with attention!

Anyway, and this is not a bug, as he saw the moon up there right now, he felt suddenly better. Why he didn’t know, but the reason is obvious to us, isn’t it? I guess it was warm the warm feeling of having something like a friend, somewhere in this big universe!
But let us come back to the facts now. At some point, after a long walk full of these new sensations for Bub, they arrived at a crossing. Until this point he had only run behind Tiwoo all the time, and there was no need to think about where to go. But now they had arrived to a place, which seemed to be a very special one. Here was a sign which showed in four different directions. A big wooden sign made out of 4 wooden arrows on which weird characters were written. Of course normal people, at least the ones of a certain age who were able to read, would have recognised the weird signs at once, and read the words:
“North, West, East and South.
But our little Bub was not a normal person, he could not read and hadn’t even a clue what reading meant!

Tiwoo had stopped too, considering the crossing as a good occasion to make a rest. She perched now on the top of the post, staring down at Bub with a kind of teasing look in her eyes, as if she wanted to say:
“It’s up to you now!”

Now Bub was standing there, with a tiny little Witch in a poison bottle in his pocket, with an owl who was staring at him from the top of a kitchen cupboard , and all this unfolding inside a Witches castle in the middle of a Witches land.

Following the natural curiosity which inhabits all children on our planet, even the ones born in a soap bubble, he started exploring the castle. Such a castle, with all the corridors, the rooms, the towers, and the hidden corners was certainly a very exciting and mysterious place for a boy. He spent hours and hours running up and down the stairs, opening doors and drawers and poking in all the nooks and crannies, leaving an indescribubble chaos behind him everywhere he went.

Tiwoo, who of course was following him everywhere very closely, got an unpleasant feeling in her tummy, thinking of Barbra who indeed hated it when somebody was putting his nose in her things. And of course, she hated it even more when this somebody was leaving everything all over the place.
On the other hand she was secretly very excited to finally be able to enter some rooms into which Barbra never let her in and always kept locked.
She had always been very curious to see what was hidden behind all these mysterious doors…
But to tell the truth, nothing special was behind these doors. Just totally normal rooms, most of them even empty. Tiwoo understood that Barbra had just wanted to make herself look important with these supposed hidden secrets.

After exploring every single corner of the castle, Bub sat on a step of the main staircase, exhausted. Tiwoo landed on the banister in her usual uncertain style, not too close to Bub, but not very far away either. To tell the truth she had lost her initial mistrust, the boy looking pretty harmless and anyway the lust of adventure was stronger than any fear: she really didn’t want to miss anything!
She realised too that this was THE occasion to make the sightseeing flight above the land around the castle she had been dreaming about for a long time.
Of course she hadn’t forgotten Barbra who still sat in the poison bottle in Bub’s pocket, but she calmed her conscience by the thought that the fresh air might do her brain good, and help to find a way to free our little Witch.

And this is why Tiwoo suddenly spread her big wings wide and took off. The fact that she looked like a bat didn’t bother her at all, because she had never seen bats before and didn’t know how ugly they are. But even if she had known, it probably wouldn’t have bothered her either, because she was a wise owl and knew, that in most cases it is not the beauty that matters but the efficiency. And one thing was certain: her wings were very efficient!

As Bub saw the owl flying away, he decided to follow her: the thought of staying alone in that castle with the ugly little person in his pocket was not reassuring at all!
He screamed:

“Wait for me, please, wait for me!”

and started running after her. For a second Tiwoo thought that there was no reason why she should wait for him, but well, one never knows what crazy ideas could cross his mind, for example, what to do with the bottle in his pocket! She definitely had to keep an eye on him! She let out a deep sigh
“Why always me?”
But once again her sense of responsibility won the day and she was ready to sacrifice her lusts for the sake of Barbra. She also decided to fly in a holding pattern, but not without moaning what a silly creature that boy was for not being able to fly!
On the other hand, she realised that it was perhaps better this way. At least he could never catch her and keep her in a poison bottle! This all the kind of stuff she was thinking about while waiting for Bub… as you can see: the fresh air was really doing a great job on Tiwoo’s brain!

With a presence of mind worthy of the greatest brains she developed a devilish escape plan in her tiny little head. She had in her kitchen a small bottle filled with a poison which she has mixed herself according to a recipe from her book. One never knows…! Her devilish plan was now to run to the kitchen, as discreetly as possible, to get the bottle and to poison the ugly dwarf!
An smile of self contentment flitted across her face: in fact right now she was amazed at her own ingenuity!

She waited until what appeared to be the right moment, and suddenly jumped down from her throne., or, better said, she let herself fall down as the seat was quite high. And landed catastrophically, as she always did, needing some time to recover from the shock.. But then she started running as if the Devil was behind her, forgetting in fact that the Devil was inside her!

Unfortunately for her, none of this had escaped the huge eyes of the ugly giant dwarf and he followed her through the castle. Barbra, glancing at the gigantic feet which always seemed to want to stomp on her, had lost the smile from her face and panicked again, trying to reach the kitchen in a weird zigzag trajectory.

Of course it was very long way for such a tiny Witch and when she eventually reached the table, where the poison bottle stood, she was totally exhausted. She had first to sit down on the ground to recover some energy to clamber up the table leg.
But as she finally stood on the table close to the bottle, a big smile of triumph spread upon her face.
This is exactly when the grasping fingers of a giant hand closed around her tiny body….

About Café Crem

Hello Boys & Girls from around the World!

Fancy a coffee with us?

Café Crem was created by Miki and Kev Moore in 2007 with the intention of gathering like-minded artists, writers and musicians together around the coffee table to discuss and share thoughts, ideas, art, etc.

This initial desire has surpassed our wildest dreams with a myriad of collaborations taking place between the various members, creating pieces of work that simply would not exist without Café Crem.

Have a wander though in our different rooms:

“Cafe Literati”, the Literary Room

“Café L’Arte”, the Art Gallery

“Ca’ Puccini”, the Music Studio

and, last but not least,

“The MiniBar”, our creative space for our kids and teens!

You are all welcome.

Contact Miki at miki@goodaboom.com if you want to participate!

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Cafe Crem’s Video of The Month

The Flamencoscapes by Miki

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